When I picked up the car the OSF Wiring loom wasn't held in place properly. I thought I'd just cable tie it back in place and off I go as it seemed most people were fine with this method of just putting it over the arch lip to protect it.
Whilst I didn't have any issues on the 16's I soon ran into into issues with the bulkhead side of the loom fouling my 17" Gram lites. Queue a zip tied coke can to finish a drift day with a new addition to the "Thing to fix this week" list.
After reviewing the different options I could take to fix this there were two real options. Relocate the bay fuseboxes inside the car. This was the best option and I still want to do this, but at this point in the S13 ownership I was still daily driving the car, so I couldn't afford it to have it out of action for a week. The other option I saw was from Ed/Struggle on DW, which was to move the route that the loom takes so it is out the side of the footwell rather than the bulkhead.
This is again one of the things I've done without many pictures but its easy enough to replicate from the outcome.
I removed the SMJ block from the footwell fusebox and squeezed that through the original opening through into the wheelwell. Measured the grommet and made an outline of the hole to cut. I then went round with drill bits to make a circle of 6mm holes or so. Then got my reciprocating air saw and made the cut out. ~ I said to myself then, the next time I needed to cut a hole like that I would buy a hole cutter. I didn't and then when I needed to do it the next time for my air intake I hated myself ~
Then it was a case of just refitting, putting the SMJ back through its new hole. To cover up the original hole in the wheelwell that is now unused I used seam sealer and a piece of 1mm steel. I had always planned to put a couple of tack welds on this when it fell off but so far the the seam sealer has held up so would suggest to others to just do the same and not bother welding it unless your carpets are already out.
When I tubbed my arches 2 years later I just re-produced the lip it sits on from stock metal and kept the loom in this location.
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So that is the OS sorted and problem free. I've also done some work on the NS, which not a lot of people talk about. This side is significantly easier though due to the reduced amount of wiring. I never thought about looking at this loom until I lost my wipers mid-soaking wet drift day. Which was less than ideal.
My car came with the ABS deleted but still had all of the plugs for it in the bay. So I broke down each of the cables that were going over the NSF arch and found there were a lot that didn't need to be routed this way.
~ Typical Scottish Highlands weather ft my garage ~
Binned off a bunch of wiring. Re-tucked and cable tied. There were a couple of things from the wiper motor area that I was able to move inside the interior so it is by the ECU.
Even though I've currently no issues with the arch wiring looms I'll eventually move the fuseboxes into the car just to clean things up.
There are a few other options for handling these wiring looms but I personally think these two methods are the only ones worth doing.
Cheers